![\"Alyssa](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/ji5WSRceONDVZb3aRWofYr3QCcM=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)\/Alyssa-Jeacoma-student-debt-0-081125-3c8f5e82542d4488908a3fa7b8901867.jpg\")
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At 17, Alyssa Jeacoma signed off on student loans before going to college<\/p>\n
Each semester, she borrowed around $8,000. By the end of her college career, her loans totaled $85,000<\/p>\n
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But recently, Jeacoma, now 26, learned that some of her loans carried a 17% interest rate. When she found this out, she burst into tears and took to sharing about it on TikTok<\/p>\n
At 17, Alyssa Jeacoma signed off on student loans without fully understanding what she was getting into because no one ever taught her how.
\nShe had just committed to D\u2019Youville University in Buffalo, N.Y., where she would go on to study psychology for five and a half years. Each semester, she borrowed around $8,000, mostly through the Student Loan Marketing Association \u2014 also known as Sallie Mae \u2014 a private company that provides student loans and other financial products for education. By the end of her college career, her loans totaled $85,000.
\nLooking back at when she first signed up for loans, the specifics were a blur. Her parents, she says, weren\u2019t able to help much either; they had no experience with the loan process. Instead, she followed the advice that Sallie Mae would pay for school, and she’d pay $100 a month until she graduated.
\n“That is literally all I knew. I didn\u2019t know any better to ask questions because how could I?” Jeacoma tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I was 17 with no knowledge about finances.”<\/p>\n
So when Jeacoma, now 26, recently learned that some of her loans carried a 17% interest rate, she burst into tears. Unsure who to turn to, she called her mom, who didn\u2019t have much knowledge or any real solution to offer.
\nStill seeking help, she turned to TikTok.
\n“My hope was to get some advice, and hopefully warn people about this experience and try to prevent others from making the same mistakes I had made,” Jeacoma says.
\n“No one taught me a single thing about interest. I didn\u2019t even know what it was,” she adds. “Some of my loans have a 10% interest rate. I thought that was standard across the board for all of my loans. I didn\u2019t even know they could have different rates on different loans.”<\/p>\n
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\nSince posting her story, Jeacoma\u2019s video has gone viral \u2014 racking up over 5.4 million views and more than 35,000 comments. The overwhelming attention pushed her to take control of her finances.
\n\u201cI read the comments and gathered the knowledge I needed, gathered myself and made a game plan,” she says. “Financially, I am taking all the steps I can to lower my interest rates and pay off the loans that have the highest percentages. [I\u2019m] continuing working my two jobs in order to make ends meet.\u201d
\nShe says the response has been a mix of support and criticism.
\n“I had so many people tell me they\u2019re in the same boat and they felt for me,” she says. “I had a lot of backlash of people telling me to suck it up and stop crying, which I really felt was unfair. I never said this wasn\u2019t my fault or my responsibility, and people painted it to look like I had been begging people to pay it for me.”
\nNever miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n
For Jeacoma, the experience was a massive wake-up call.
\n“Emotionally, I will be just fine,” she says. “Professionally, I will continue in my career. I am using my degree, I am making my payments and working my way through this. Like I said in my video, I am making my payments on time, it\u2019s just really heartbreaking to look at the amount due and see that it\u2019s higher than what I even borrowed. I understand that\u2019s just how the system is, but it\u2019s such a scam and a horrible system.”
\nShe adds doesn\u2019t blame her parents, who came of age in a different financial world.
\n“Neither of them could have predicted this,” she says. “But I do think it should be more commonly spoken [about] in high schools what your options are.”
\n“I could\u2019ve definitely used some education on finances, loans, mortgages,” she continues. “When I graduated high school, I didn\u2019t even know how to write a check. To me, that is so sad and a failure of the school systems.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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